Saturday, August 10, 2013

ShameLess by Mel Ballew

"If all you can do is crawl, start crawling. Soon, you’ll be able to stand."

S’renaty James lives a privileged life most her age only dream of living. She is beautiful and popular with her entire life ahead of her. Life could not get any better.

Until her entire life shifts, crashing around her...

Bound by devastation, persecuted by the ones she used to call ‘friends’, haunted by disturbing nightmares, and filled with self-blame, she vows to overcome.

Stefan is everything S’renaty swears to avoid. He is carefree and charismatic. He is primitive, complicated and a total badass. He makes her melt like fine chocolate under a hot summer’s sun the first time their eyes meet. There is something about him, and she makes it her mission to find out.

When he meets S’renaty James, he is not prepared for what comes over him because for the first time ever, a girl leaves him breathless. Now, his primary responsibility is to keep her safe.

He will do anything to protect her. Even lie...

Stefan is the one person she has trusted with her heart. After keeping an unforgivable secret, he could be the one to shatter it to pieces. In fact, he may even destroy her beyond repair. Will she overcome and forgive, letting go of the pain, guilt and shame? Or this time, will she be stronger than the hardest lesson of her life — and, become totally ShameLess?

Author Bio:

Mel Ballew resides in rural Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter, along with their two adorable cats. An avid reader, she has always had an equal passion for writing and has written her entire life, to date. Her mother initially birthed, inspired, and encouraged these loves. The two often discussed writing together but unfortunately, that dream never came to fruition.Years later, this happened, that happened—life happened. She stepped away from writing to place more focus on being wife and a full-time mom. Today, she would not have changed a thing. The day her daughter was born became the first day she realized a significant rhythm to her heart was also born. Her daughter, now preparing to go off to college, has grown into a beautiful and responsible young adult.A twisted turn of events in September 2009 left Mel unable to work outside of the home. Forced to consider other options, and while embracing a therapeutic approach of transcribing all of the challenges facing her, post-accident, she returned to journaling. Once again, the writer within her has been re-birthed—awakened from slumber.Mel is a hopeless romantic. Blessed, she has her very own soul mate, which she calls husband, best friend, and lover. She is a simple country gal, with a profound love of true simplicity. She is just as hopeless in her love of nature and regards many of her writing aspirations to appreciating its beauty, although every single story is birthed from her dreams. Sometimes, in life, simply enjoying a chilled glass of sangria on a warm summer’s eve or indulging in her love of chocolate and peanut butter is an expression of enjoying such simplicity. For her, these moments are truly d’vine.

This is a tough one. This book started out fantastic for me. S'renity has to overcome the death of her best friend and the subsequent bullying. And I really felt her pain at the beginning. I thought for sure it was 5 stars and I was really excited. It had me in tears in the first 10 min. But then...something happened. All of a sudden there were big holes in the story. I kept having to backtrack to see if I missed a part. This growth that you are supposed see Ren go through is skipped over. And then there were some twists that came out of nowhere. And not in a good way, but in like a...wtf kinda way. If all that was going to happen, I felt like the book should be 4 times longer to delve into it all. The dialogue between the characters and the inner monologues became sort of overly formal. I just kept hoping it was going to go back to how it started...It was still a good story overall. I thought it was a great story before all the plot twists and I felt like those took away from the whole thing. I'm giving it 3 stars because it started out so great, but I was left underwhelmed.